The Journey Of Life In Anita Desai's Clear Light Of Day

1499 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The theme of life and death

Clear Light of Day (1980) is a family drama, which describes the predicament of a post-partition Indian family. The setting of the novel is in the family house in Old Delhi. The novel is divided into four parts that covers the Das family; focused on the second generation: Bim, Raja, Tara and Baba. The plot in the novel traces the journey of life from their childhood to adulthood, and also the historical period of British India and post-independent India. With her ability to craft the world with words, Anita Desai symbolically and allegorically represents bigger world (the national concerns) through the portrayal of the smallest unit (the Das family).
Desai is a woman interested in feelings, in what people experience within the family sphere. Her novels usually do not present many actions and adventures, but she portrays Indian lives and social structures. She criticizes the flaws of Indian society by painting small scenes of everyday life; she shows the reader how society works and how it can put pressure on people, sometimes to the point of destroying individuals. She is more interested in the inner self of an individual rather than the vast world of politics. Relating a story of deteriorating middle-class Indian family in postcolonial Old Delhi, Clear Light of Day is described by a haunting, frigid and gloomy atmosphere, particularly in the Das family (Batts, 2011).
Here, Desai tries to allegorize the condition of India during the political unrest. Using the family as miniature for larger national concerns, the novel traces the tensions of the Hindu family. The chief protagonist Bim, who is burdened with caring for autistic brother Baba and Aunt Mira, represents Indian culture, while Tara, wife of an ambassador, represents the W...

... middle of paper ...

...th the realization of time being the mighty “destroyer and preserver.” Bim after attending the musical concert, eventually realize that no matter how vast the difference each individual possess they belonged together, as one and as family. Through their family and their surrounding environment it is revealed how India dealt with the partition of 1947. Desai gives her readers a sense that, just like Bim and her family, had Hindu and Muslim taken a little more effort to understand each other and work out their misunderstandings, the scenario at present would have been different. Through the final realization and reconciliation of the Das family members and through the allegorical significance of the title Clear Light of Day, the matters at the level of Das Family and the political unrest of India in 1947 goes parallel, because the ‘time’ has healed the wounds that it

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Anita Rau Badami

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though varied in cultural they share a deep interest in evolving female culture and liberation of women. Our thesis mainly focused on her one of the novel “The hero’s walk” which mainly deals with Diasporic sensibility like “The hero’s walk”, “Tamarind Mem” And “Can You Hear the Night Bird Cell?” Written by her also deals with the same theme of Diasporic sensibility “Tamarind Mem” (1997) grew out of her university thesis. Her novels deal with the complexities of Indian family life and with the split that emerges when Indian move to the west. Her first novel “Tamarind Mem” deal with pungent sugary home sickness of her Indian sensibility portraying her memories of her past days, depicting the descriptions of Indian domestic life. Her second novel “The Hero’s Walk” could be the best illustration to her alien feeling which was clod in a fine garb of refinement. And also she has portrayed the clash between the cultural of East and west. She attempts to explore the nuances of Diasporic consciousness by the quait portrayal of woman characters. Badami’s third novel “Can You Hear the Night Bird Call?” Explores the golden Temple slaughter and the Air India Bombing was set against the back drop of Punjab division “Can You Hear the Night Bird Call?” Could be branded as a historical novel, as the plot conveniently moves between India and Canada in 1947. It tries to explore the

    Read More

  • Racism and Ethnicity Issues in Morrison, O´Connor, and Kingston´s Novels

    1765 Words  | 4 Pages

    We find characters like Mr. and Mrs. Das who are so distant from their Indian heritage that they need a tour guide, and we find Mrs. Sen, who sits on her floor every day, chopping vegetables in the same way she did in India, with the same knife she used in India. The characters who find happiness are always those who can embrace their present circumstance, while at the same time never forget their Indian roots.

    Read More

  • Maya Rani's History Of The Partition Of India

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Partition of India led to millions of people displaced and marked as one of the largest mass migration ever over the world. August 15, 1947 was a very significant day for Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and many others. It marked the day of the British partition of India, and India won its freedom from colonial rule, ending nearly 200 years of British rule. This successful attainment of independence from colonial rule defined a narrative of religious nationalism, but also has led to displacement and violence between the two nation states of India and Pakistan. Once a peaceful union of Muslims and Hindus had become separated, whereas Muslims got Pakistan and Hindus got an independent India (Best et al, 2008). “The Other Side of Silence” (Butalia, 2000, pp.264-300) the oral testimony of a Punjabi woman Maya Rani, who was a child living in Pakistan during the Partition. Her testimony was crucial to understand the historiography of the event, because she was a witness of the impact of the Partition, but she was not directly involved in the violence that the emergence and independence of India that has brought.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dadi's Family

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is no day off being a woman in a household, either being a sister, daughter, daughter in law, or mother in law there is always a task assigned to you. In Dadi’s family, Dadi describes being a woman as being an inferior caste. Being a woman includes being submissive and being able to work hard in a household for the family. Dadi sheds light on her experience when she was once a new daughter in-law. Women were to cover their face from father in laws and brother in laws as to show respect to the men. Dadi also expresses that as a new bride there were no rights for women, except though the men. Although times has changed from Dadi being a new bride, times has not fully changed completely as when Darshini and Sita became daughter in laws. The preparation of new brides shows a patriarchal mentality. The film expresses that women are taken away from their families and are married into a family of strangers as they join the male’s family. The brides are obligated to leave their homes and their past life all behind to live in their groom’s home. The women are forced to adapt to the male’s lifestyle and to subside the life they were living as individual women. Women’s main

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Mama And The Misfit

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main character is Mrs. Das whom is flirtatious, careless, and needy. She and her husband take their family to see the country India for the first time. The tour guide Mr.Kapsi whom is curious, understanding, and quite aware. He sees something unusual at the beginning of the trip, but does not say anything. As the children continue their site seeing, the husband takes picture with his camera as if he lost in his own world. Meanwhile the wife gets to know the driver instead of site seeing. Mr.Kapsi is aware that the family is not like most Indians which lead him to be attracted to Mrs.Das. It states, “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners did, the children in stiff, brightly colored clothing and caps with translucent visors (29). This quote shows the difference in cultural clash as well the difficulty of communication. Mr.Kapsi tells Mrs. Das that he is an interpreter for a doctor which makes her believe she can discuss her personal business without him telling anyone. It states, “He decided to begin with the most obvious question, to get to the heart of the matter, and so he asked, “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?”(39) Made the wife realized what she was truly feeling about her mistakes. After the conversation Mr.Kapsi did not look at the Mrs.Das the same way. The unusual

    Read More

  • Interpreter Of Maladies

    2026 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jhumpa Lahiri is widely recognized as a Bengali-American author whose stories are focused on the Bengali/Indian immigrant experience. With her literary debut, she wins the 1999 O. Henry Award and the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1). “Interpreter of Maladies” is a short fiction story about the modern Indian Americans visiting India, which is considered a foreign country to them. Lahiri compellingly demonstrates that all types of relationships are unique and dependent on the efforts and communication of the individuals, which leads to misunderstanding between, couples and even failed relationships or marriages. The author has utilized the lack of communication

    Read More

  • The Treatment Of Bibi Haldar Sparknotes

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies traces the lives of Bengali people, mostly immigrants, living their lives with the hardships that they face. In the eighth story, “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar”, the wives of a village tell of Bibi Haldar, a young woman put into the most unfortunate of circumstances. The ailment she suffers from, the lack of a loving home, her disgraced ending, and, most of all, the ability to become victorious through these hardships makes Bibi the most sympathetic character in Lahiri’s short story collection.

    Read More

  • Jhumpa Lahiri Heritage

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    Das shows a stereotypical American flaw where she did not care about her children and went and openly started discussing her personal life and also in the process she found guilty for disrespecting the country and the cultural believes, where she believes it or not she still got the Indian heritage in her. Lahiri’s proves us that Mrs. Das is a messy; lazy and over all a bad parent. She simply has no concern for the environment, as she was completely fine after dropping rice snacks all over the floor riling the local wildlife. Mrs. Das simply represents what’s called “Ugly American” who always stands out in the crowd for her own needs and is very narrow minded and only cares about her self. This showed a complete lack of understanding among them shows a complete difference between the family and culture.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'Homosexuality: Struggle Of The Queer Nation'

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    As fate disintegrates, Milind goes missing from Yudi’s life into the corrupt world of Bollywood called boys. At last, Yudi finds him again, only to witness that he has married a woman. The novel ends with a seemingly heart wrenching episode for Yudi as Milind visits him often for his own financial interests and Yudi just can’t let him go for his love. The novel brings into context the riots of Babri Masjid as Yudi worries and searches for the Dalit boy Milind.

    Read More

  • The Namesake Essay

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Two Hindu meals, please.” ’; this one line from the book, subtly highlights the differences between the immigrant parents and the first-generation US born kids. Throughout the book, Lahiri explores the contretemps and clashes that arise as a result of the generation gap between parents and children, some generic and some distinctively immigrant. In the acceptance of American culture by Ashoke and Ashima, she underscores the sacrifices made by parents for the sake of their children.

    Read More

  • Patriarchal Pathology: The Case of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child and Mahesh Dattani’s Where There’s a Will.

    3242 Words  | 7 Pages

    Mahesh Dattani writes on the burning issues that beset the post-independence Indian society, whether it is communal discord, politics and crime, growing homosexuality or the gender bias. He uses stage to condemn many of the drawbacks prevailing in society. His plays depict marginalized groups of society, people who are considered misfits in a society where stereotyped attitudes and notions reign supreme. His plays have varied content and varied appeal.

    Read More

  • Everything's Arranged, by Siew Yue Killingley

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this story, Rukumani, the protagonist faces a number of external conflicts; the conflict between her and her traditional Ceylonese Tamil family, the conflict between her and her mother, the conflict she has with her younger brother who messes up things for her, to name a few.

    Read More

  • Family Feud in Anita Desai´s Clear Light of Day

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, parental absence escalates sibling conflict, which leads to the characters escapement, ultimately resulting in Bim’s anger. While some readers may think that Clear Light of Day just represents a single family’s struggle, the novel clearly represents India’s struggle as well. India’s independence from Britain consequently leads to the formation of Pakistan and continual religious and political conflict. This novel is an allegory that explains political combat in an accessible way because everyone is part of a family. This novel not only models the reasons for conflict in India but for other nations and even families as well.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Anita Rau Badami's Tamarind Mem

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Indian-Canadian writer Anita Rau Badami has penned a few widely praised books managing the complexities of Indian family life and the cultural gap that rises when Indians move toward the west. A nostalgic mother-daughter story told by two women from the Moorthy family, Badami's Tamarind Mem is a novel about the energy of memory and narrating. The Washington post surveys the novel as being “splendidly evocative.... as much a book about the universal habit of storytelling as it is about the misunderstandings that arise between a mother and daughter.” Lisa Singh calls her reading experience of Tamarind Mem as being “bittersweet…. with often stunning, poetic prose, [Badami] gives us an intimate character study of two women” (Star Tribune).

    Read More

  • The Other Side of Silence, by Urvashi Butalia

    1383 Words  | 3 Pages

    Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.

    Read More

More about The Journey Of Life In Anita Desai's Clear Light Of Day

Open Document